arrozdoce: "MUTiRiS' clutch brought us back and won us the game"

"We'll have to pray that ZywOo doesn't play well tomorrow," the young rifler said.

SAW's feel-good story in Cologne continues as they move on to the semi-finals after beating FaZe in a hectic three-map series. It is the second top-10 team that SAW have beaten in this tournament after a 2-0 win over G2 in the group stage.

Despite their lack of stage experience, SAW kept their composure throughout the series, even after some costly mistakes on Anubis. "Before, there was some finger-pointing in situations like this," Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing told HLTV after the match. "Since the break, it has been, like, round by round, if someone loses a round, screw it."

The final map came down to overtime, but it could have been much different if it weren't for Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes' spectacular 1v4 clutch on the lower site. arrozdoce was full of praise for his captain and acknowledged that round as a defining moment in the series. "You can be sure it brought us back and won us the game," he said.

A hard-fought 2-1 win against one of the best teams in the world. How are you feeling?

I feel joy. We knew we could win this match. We just had to prove it.

Many were thinking it would be FaZe vs Vitality in the semi-finals. What was the secret to staying calm until the end?

There is no secret, we just have to believe in our game, and not be afraid to do what we normally do in practice and what we did in the group stage. As long as we are confident in our game, we can have more results like this.

Inferno was their pick, yet you dominated the map completely. From the beginning, it looked like you had a good game plan and were prepared for everything they wanted to do.

Yeah, we prepared Inferno, Ancient, Anubis and Dust2. We expected these four maps. We were not fully prepared for Nuke, but yeah, we thoroughly prepared the first two maps.

On Anubis, you lost a 4vs2 and then a 3v2 towards the end where MUTiRiS missed a smoke. What was the team talk after that map like?

Before, there was some finger-pointing in situations like this. Since the break, it has been, like, round by round, if someone loses a round, screw it, we will talk about it after the series. We had a lot of chances to close out Anubis, and so did they, but that's not something we're going to be worried about until we've returned to the practice room to fix some mistakes.

MUTiRiS' clutch on Nuke changed the game, it felt like. How did you react to that clutch?

You can be sure it brought us back and won us the game. I was already thinking that the round was lost, but the captain went crazy and blew them away.

You were up 12-8 and then forced overtime. Many certainly expected you to collapse in overtime. How did you manage to stay so calm and collected?

Our game plan was to hit A because, when preparing for the game, we saw that it was the weakest site in general. And I think we wanted to close out the game too quickly and they were prepared for us. They anti-stratted us and took the game to overtime. Since we had an extra timeout, we used it, we slowed the game down and we decided how to close it out.

What was it like to play in an arena like this in front of so many people? Did you feel any pressure? Because you came out so strongly on Inferno that it looked like FaZe were the ones feeling the pressure.

I can say that I was a little bit nervous before the walkout. I was afraid that I'd be nervous in the game and scared to react to certain situations. But as soon as the walkout was over and I sat down, I completely forgot about the audience and played like it was nothing. This is what I want to play for, I love being here and want to play in arenas like this more often.

I could hear some noise but I didn't know who the crowd was cheering for, didn't know if it was for FaZe or us. All I knew was that when we won a round, they'd scream. That brought even more energy to the game.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024
17/08/2024	Vitality 15:45 SAW	Match

Next up is Vitality. What are your expectations?

It's going to be a very tough game. We'll have to pray that ZywOo doesn't play well tomorrow.

How far do you think you can go? Do you think you can make it to the final?

For me, ever since we showed that we are playing well against these teams, my dream has been to make it to the final. It doesn't matter if we win the trophy or not, I just want to continue to show that we are playing at a good level and deserve to be here.

What kind of impact do you think this victory will have on the team?

A very positive one. The same thing happened in the match against G2. By winning and showing dominance, we feel quite comfortable playing against these teams, and we want more and more.